1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to communication protocols and more specifically to a communication protocol for communication between devices that do not recognize bit or character oriented protocols.
2. Background of the Invention
Some communication systems use bit and character oriented protocols which use a standard method for transmitting and receiving data. These protocols also use a standard method for recognizing the end of a receive frame. In other communication systems there are many devices that transmit or receive variable length bit streams. Some of these devices are unable to recognize bit or character oriented protocols. In such communication systems data is sent from a transmitting device in variable-length bit streams. These bit streams do not include parity, frame check sequence, or bit boundaries. At the receiving end, the amount of data to be received is unknown. There is no trailing character in the bit stream to denote the end of the stream. There is a maximum boundary of the data format being sent.
In a prior system, a sending device drops a control signal and the receiving device terminates a read on a change in the control signal. This method has the disadvantage that control signals are required to denote the termination of the received bit streams and some communication systems lack such control signals.